Heroes of the Storm

Heroes of the Storm is an upcoming Blizzard Entertainment "hero brawler" game which was initially inspired by the Defense of the Ancients custom map for Warcraft III. The game features characters from across the Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo franchises, who are seized by an unknown force and brought together in a mysterious location known as the Nexus to do battle.

Heroes of the Storm is currently in Closed Beta.

Gameplay

Heroes of the Storm is a team-based competitive game in which each player controls a powerful hero with unique abilities, and works with his or her team to invade and destroy the enemy team's base.

Heroes of the Storm has a number of features which set it apart from other DOTA-style games:

Experience is shared between all players on a team, so there is no benefit to last-hitting.

There are no purchasable items, although characters can be customized by learning talents as they level up.

All skills are unlocked at the beginning of a match, save for ultimate abilities, which are learned at level 10.

Games are intended to last for about 20 minutes each, and each map has unique objectives.

Future development

While the Nexus mainly selects characters from the three major Blizzard franchises, the future will see the Nexus drawing in characters from lesser-known franchises, or even from "Nexus realms" entirely outside of Blizzard's existing repertoire.

Team 1 plan to release a patch for the game every 1-2 months, as well as introducing new heroes and battlegrounds at fairly regular intervals.